The Etna Lady Lions basketball teams traveled to Fall River on Friday and Saturday to participate in the Fall River Round Robin tournament.

The girls basketball program came into the tournament with the varsity and junior varsity teams both on a four game winning streak. Three other schools came to compete; the Los Molinos Bulldogs, the Lassen Grizzlies, and the hosting Fall River Bulldogs. The Etna JV team went 3-0 and took first overall. This included a narrow victory over the upper-division Lassen Grizzlies. Both Natalie Aldrich and Hayley Kaae were named All-tourney while Sage Gomes was named MVP.

The tournament lasted two days, with one game on Friday and two on Saturday. On Friday, both Etna teams took on Fall River. The JV's won 51-43. Hayley Kaae led the team with 14 points.

In the opening minutes of the first quarter in the varsity game, it looked as if the Lady Lions were going to walk away with an easy win as they jumped to an 11-1 lead.

Fall River fought back and cut the lead to four by the end of the first quarter. However, it was in the fourth quarter when Fall River truly made their comeback. After being behind by seven at the beginning of the fourth, Fall River took their first lead of the game 61-60 with 3:02 on the clock. With 12.3 seconds left, Fall River stepped out of bounds, giving Etna back the ball, with a chance to win the game. With five seconds left, Senior Sara Hoyt drained a mid-range jumper to give Etna the lead 66-65. Fall River was unable to get one last shot off, and the Lady Lions took the tough win. Hoyt had 16 points and eight rebounds in the game, and fellow senior Jessie Eiler dropped in 23 points.

In the first games on day two, Etna faced the Los Molinos Bulldogs. The JV's took their matchup 58-22, Natalie Aldrich had 21 points and Sage Gomes added in another 14. The varsity squad had a very strong game offensively, scoring 32 points in the first half, then 31 in the third quarter as Etna beat Los Molinos 74-27. Sara Hoyt had a double-double with 10 point and 11 rebounds.

Hannah Little had 12 points and five rebounds, and Jessie Eiler had 14 points, including three three-pointers.

In the final games of the tournament, the Lady Lions faced the Lady Grizzlies of Lassen. With 10 seconds left in the JV game, Sage Gomes made a tough jump shot to take the lead 53-52. "Our team deserved it," she said afterwards "we won that game as a team." Gomes had 25 points total in the contest.

The varsity squad failed to continue their winning streak as they fell to Lassen 66-36. The Lady Lions struggled to break Lassen's press, and turned the ball over multiple times. Hannah Little scored 12 points, and Sara Hoyt contributed another 10.

Page 2 of 2 - "I'm really happy where we're at right now." Etna Varsity coach Les Helsey said after the game. "All of our wins have been against division teams, and our two losses have come from upper-division schools."